Nothing But The Truth?
by ParisWriter
Summary: Varia Surana decides that it's time to come clean with the First Warden about how she survived the Blight, but Alistair has an idea of his own about how they should handle the situation. (Alistair/Surana)


Author's Note: Written for the January 2013 Writing Challenge held by the Dragon Age Stories group on deviantART.

The parameters of the challenge were as follows:

Maximum of 1,000 words: 1,000 words, on the nose.  
Must include the following:  
1) Character - A beautiful woman with a terrible secret she must reveal: Varia Surana, whose terrible secret is the truth about how she killed the Archdemon and didn't die like every other Warden before her who had done the deed.  
2) Setting - A dark and dangerous path: Varia takes one of the back alleys from the Wardens' keep in Denerim to The Gnawed Noble, which isn't exactly the safest route but she was trying to avoid being seen and also wanted to keep Alistair from following her... Which, unfortunately, doesn't work.  
3) Prop - The number 13 and a cat: When I saw this, the first thing that popped into my mind was, "How would I pull off a Black Cat crossover in under 1,000 words?" Then I laughed at what a dork I am and came up with an actual way to use these props. The cat became a black cat which ran across Varia's path, and the number thirteen ended up being the number of the room where her meeting with the First Warden is to take place. Gee... I hope everything goes well for her and Alistair, since those are both signs of bad luck.

* * *

**Nothing But The Truth?**

She moved silently through the dangerous back alleys of Denerim, carefully picking her way through the beggars and drunkards who had decided to sleep there for the night. Two eyes glowed silver-white underneath the hood of the cloak she was wearing, piercing the darkness but not offering nearly enough light to show a clear path between the buildings. It wasn't the safest route from the Wardens' keep in the city to the inn where the meeting was to take place, but it was the quickest one and the one where she was least likely to be noticed by others.

A black cat suddenly ran across the alley in front of her and she stumbled backward a bit in surprise, then swore under her breath before continuing along her way. She only made it a few steps, however, before a hand came down firmly upon her shoulder. She immediately spun around, raising a hand full of fire to throw at the assailant.

"Vaira! It's me!" Alistair quickly told his lover in a loud whisper, grasping her wrist before she could bring the flames into contact with his face.

"What are you doing here?" she whispered back, then turned to look at one of the sleeping hobos who had begun to stir as a result of the commotion. With a sigh, she grasped his hand and dragged him the rest of the way through the alley.

"Tell me, what exactly are you planning to say to him?" Alistair asked as he obediently followed her lead, a slightly bitter edge to his voice. "I thought we agreed to come up with a convenient excuse to leave town again so we could avoid this conversation."

"We can't keep dodging the First Warden forever," Varia pointed out to him. "Eventually, we'll have to tell him... _something_. We have to explain how I'm still alive after killing the Archdemon, and the more we avoid him the more suspicious we look."

"Face it, he _already_ knows we did something very, very bad," Alistair told her. "That much was apparent in how quickly we received word that he wanted an audience with us."

Varia remained silent as the two of them emerged from the alley and she began steering them toward The Gnawed Noble, where the meeting was to take place. It took Alistair a moment to interpret her silence, and when he finally realized what it meant he gave her hand a firm tug in order to halt her approach to the tavern.

"You're not seriously planning on telling him the _truth_, are you?" he questioned her when she turned to look at him. "That I fathered a demon baby in some blood magic ritual in order to save our hides."

"I... I don't know," she admitted. "Somehow, I feel like he'll be able to see through any lie I might try to tell him."

"Then let me do the talking."

Varia laughed a bit at his suggestion and stepped closer to him. "Alistair, you're a worse liar than I am."

"I know," Alistair told her with a cheeky grin, slipping a hand beneath the hood of her cloak and pushing it off. She turned her eyes up to meet his and he swore he could still see the silver flecks within their glow catching the moonlight.

"So how is that going to help us?" she wondered, raising a single golden eyebrow.

"I'll tell them this ridiculous story about how I danced naked around a bonfire with a Witch of the Wilds and performed a blood magic sex rite which secured our safety at the Archdemon's defeat, and then you can jump in and tell them something totally made-up which sounds tame and infinitely more believable by comparison."

"You danced naked around a bonfire?" Varia asked him.

"No, I just thought it was a nice embellishment. Besides, I need to _lie_, remember? If I tell him the whole truth and nothing but the truth, he'll know it and we'll be in big trouble."

Varia sighed deeply. "I don't know, Alistair. I still think telling him what _really_ happened might be our best option. You and I both know that somehow, someday, that child is going to show up and cause some sort of trouble. If we lie to them and then they find out later of our deception, they'll hate us even more."

"I'm perfectly fine with that, so long as it doesn't mean they'll draw and quarter us both in the morning for putting our own needs above our duty as Wardens."

Varia shook her head, resting her hands upon his broad chest. "That's _exactly_ what we did, Alistair. We were selfish. _I _was selfish."

"Technically, I'm the selfish one. You were ready to tell that crazy bitch to beat it until I stepped into the room." He cupped his hand under her chin and turned her head until she met his eyes. "If you really want to tell them the truth, we will. But don't take the blame for what happened, love. _I _made the decision to participate in that ritual, let the punishment for my actions rest upon me alone."

He pulled her to him and held her close, her head resting under his chin, and she clung to the back of his tunic in desperation. They both knew what they had done was unspeakable and would be harshly reprimanded. Just how harshly, though, they had no idea.

"Let me do the talking," Varia finally said after a long moment of silence had passed between them. The wheels in her head were already turning as she concocted a plausible story.

"Very well," Alistair agreed, then kissed the top of her head before releasing her. "What room is he staying in?"

"Room thirteen," she informed him.

"Oh, _great_," Alistair remarked, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "There's no way this could_ possibly_ go badly. _None at all_."


End file.
